They stayed in the "rainbow room" and Lakia discovered something quite interesting as she reverted out of her shadow form. And there, Lakia stood in the coloured ice. Or, precisely, the purple ice. Jackson initially misinterpreted what had happened and let out a curse in a language which Niv understood ~ although the word itself might be outside of Niv's usual vocabulary.
"You people are going to kill me. Is it too much to ask that you tell me what you're going to do before you do it? I know our special flower here didn't bother," It was too good a name to let go, it seemed.
"But if we could start making a habit of it, I'd be appreciative."
There was no doubting it, though, Lakia had discovered something potentially interesting. The purple ice was not, physically,
there. She could stand in it in her illusionary form and she did not experience any feeling of it being there at all. It was like it didn't exist. However, the same was not true for Padraig. They all felt the same to him, very determinedly solid. He found that, as long as he didn't use his hands, his first option of using the hilt of the knife was surprisingly easy and, unlike almost anything else thus far, quite straightforward.
Even with the purple ice not there, though, Lakia couldn't find a way through the ice safely. Between them, neither did Niv and Amaris. Jackson sighed in frustration and then looked at them.
"We know the bench takes us somewhere else. It might be back into the other room, but it might be somewhere else. It's our only option."
With which, Jackson took decisive action.
"We sit on the bench. Together. We'll have a squeeze, but we do it. If anyone gets left behind for some reason, try again." He gathered them up together and then directed them to sit together on the count of three.... two...... one.
And that was what he did ~ and once again (assuming that they went with him), they felt that it wasn't so much that they moved, but more that the world around them did.
And when that happened, they found themselves in a quite different room. Now, the issue of course was that they had no idea at all
where that room was, so in the mapping department things were going to be tricky. However, they appeared at the edge of a lake (A) in an enormous cavern. There were a number of things which they might notice as they had an initial look around. Firstly, where they appeared was a bench, of course. Unlike the other two, it wasn't set in the wall. However, other than that, it was identical.
A quick glance around gave them a clear idea that this cavern was huge ~ similar in size to the largest cavern they had been in before. The "lake" was in the rough middle and was perfect, beautiful, bright blue ice. It was the same kind of ice that they had seen in other places throughout their time here ~ flawless and impossible. Yet there it was.
Where this was in relation to where they'd been, none of them could tell of course. And just in case they were wondering there, on the bench they had arrived on was a single arrow.
Right in front of them was the lake and in the ceiling above it, there was a most odd phenomena (X). In the roof there was a perfectly formed
face looking down at the lake below it. Between looking at the face and looking at its reflection in the lake itself, it was a woman's face. Padraig might consider that it looked a little like an older version of the young girl he'd seen. Or... maybe not.
It was in a section of the ceiling which seemed to be almost bursting out of the ceiling or dropping down towards the lake, yet it was solid and certainly not moving anywhere any time soon. The woman's face was sad and she seemed to have an almost pleading expression.
Or, of course, that was the imagination of those concerned.
Either way, it was another example of perfection, caved in ice over a lake. Weird.
Alongside that particular example of strange, there were others. Against one wall there was a
frozen waterfall(W) which, if they glanced behind it when they did the inevitable circuit before mapping, there was obviously some more cavern / tunnel / space behind. Closer examination showed them that it seemed to be frozen in a trill. As though the water was flowing one trill and then, the next, not. Even down to a twig or two trapped half way down.
The waterfall in question was at the highest point of the room and it was about thirty foot high, maybe more. The fact that it was frozen in time like it was meant that it had gaps in it, but if they wanted to get through it, either it would have to be someone very small, or they would need to break a hole in it.
That was weird, but over at the opening to one of the many exits, there was a pile of broken wood. When they did the circuits which Jackson would insist that they did, they would see that it was, or at least appeared to be, a wrecked and broken up cart. It was in shatters and the mess of it was in stark contrast to the rest of the place. Strange that a wreckage might be that way, but it was.
Really, they might consider that in a place like this, wrecked and broken ancient things should be the norm, but it was much more like a sore thumb, figuratively speaking.
Over near one of the many exits from this place, they noticed almost immediately that the ice was different.
Finally, the last phenomena that they noticed on a quick sweep around the room was an anomaly in the ice near another exit (Z). Here the ice was black ~ not like the rocks, but bubbled and black and getting darker and darker. It meant that they were not really able to see any further than the fact that there was an exit there. There were a number of them, after all, but as they did their first circuit of the room as a group, with mapping and sample-taking and so on, they might notice a few things.
Jackson did his best to make sure that they were in good spirits. He almost chivvied them along. Whether it was because it was what he needed, rather than what they did, who knew?
Their first circuit of the room ended, pretty much, at the final tunnel entrance where the black ice was. As they got closer they could see that it was like there was ash or dust in the ice itself. Not surprising, perhaps, considering that they were in an area with a volcano. However, Jackson definitely wanted samples of that for Zach and as they grew closer to it, there was a strange click-clack-click-clack snapping sound.
And a sort of skittering noise, too. It came from in that tunnel and it might, for some of them, seem a little familiar.
| ! | Message from: Pegasus |
| I will post again on the 11th May or sooner if everyone has posted by then. |
| Niv and Amaris have missed one round of posting! |
| This thread, and this adventure, is closed to new players. |
|
